How carbon negative/neutral/positive is a farm?

[Steevo]

Lots being banded around about farms being or becoming carbon neutral by 2030 etc.

I'm curious whether NFU or anyone have actually worked out the current standings of UK farms before making such a claim of carbon neutrality.

If you took a farm, but did no farming on it......what is the carbon situation without any agricultural/food production activities? i.e. just the hedges, grass/weeds growing, trees growing etc.
Add farming activities - what then?

Buying in the same quantity of food from elsewhere - what's the carbon footprint difference from the home production?

There's a big difference in my mind between "farming being carbon neutral" or "farms being carbon neutral". One could be vastly different from the other.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Carbon wise its not so bad especially if you don't till soil too much and don't use too much tractor hours per acre.

Nitrous Oxide and Methane wise its less rosy.

 

[spin cycle]

i did a fag packet calc for my little place and reckoned i was easily carbon neutral.....i think what govt wants to do is stop us farming whilst nicking our sequestration for air travel

 

[Sid]

There is a Netzero working group within the NFU , upon which @Guy Smith sits upon, along side a good friend of mine.

All avenues are being explored and more will be revealed to NFU members at the conference at the end of feb.

 

[Sid]

i did a fag packet calc for my little place and reckoned i was easily carbon neutral.....i think what govt wants to do is stop us farming whilst nicking our sequestration for air travel

Do show us the fag packets ?

 

[topground]

Does anyone really understand the figures associated with carbon capture, carbon neutral and all the other jargon? Or is this another example of a ponzi type scheme / sub prime mortgage scheme that no one understands bit is afraid to admit it while making money?

 

[spin cycle]

Do show us the fag packets ?

'farm carbon toolkit'...

 

[topground]

How much carbon does one of my 600kg suckler cows fed on grass and hay capture in a year?
I would like to have the figure to market the cow to those wishing to offset their CO2 emissions flying into and out of Davos this week.

 

[spin cycle]

an acre of pp absorbs 1.5t of co2/yr.....a cow emits methane equivalent to 2.3t co2.....therefore 1 cow to 1 1/2 acres of pp is carbon neutral

 

[Sid]

an acre of pp absorbs 1.5t of co2/yr.....a cow emits methane equivalent to 2.3t co2.....therefore 1 cow to 1 1/2 acres of pp is carbon neutral

No it's not, diesel usage, electricity consumption, it's not just about cow farts.

 

[Luke Cropwalker]

While I welcome the idea of UK Ag being carbon neutral I look forward to seeing if we will be able to turn this target into £££ on our bottom line. In an ideal world we would set a certain standard and anything that didn't meet the standard, including imports would then have a carbon tax added.
The other point is that not all carbon is equal. Many emissions from agriculture are part of a cycle that has been occurring for thousands if not millions of years, for example before domesticated agricultural animals there were vast herds of wild ruminants emitting methane but the methane would degrade in the atmosphere in time, the grassland would sequester CO2 and the cycle would continue.
Contrast this with the CO2 emitted from fossil fuels from transport, industry and yes agriculture. This CO2 is from fossils fuels sequestered 100's of millions of years ago, this is the CO2 that is adding to the CO2 levels in the atmosphere today.

 

[spin cycle]

No it's not, diesel usage, electricity consumption, it's not just about cow farts.

no hedges or trees around?.....1/2 mile of hedge to tonne of co2.....acre of trees ? 4t co2/yr

oh and 2 transatlantic return flights = 1 cow

 

[Sid]

no hedges or trees around?.....1/2 mile of hedge to tonne of co2.....acre of trees ? 4t co2/yr

oh and transatlantic return flight = 1 cow....almost

I wouldn't say the carbon figures would be that high from what I understand.
I am happy to be corrected.

 

[Still Farming]

Can we thus look forward to a nfu carbon calculator app next then???

 

[Sid]

Can we thus look forward to a nfu carbon calculator app next then???

From what I understand it can be very complex.
Simple one have greater margin of error. Say 10-16%
More detailed are more accurate but are more time consuming

 

[Jackov Altraids]

No it's not, diesel usage, electricity consumption, it's not just about cow farts.

There is a lot more to it than that.

The cow is saving diesel by managing the sward. It is providing manure with potentially no travelling. It provides milk , meat, leather etc. from basically solar power.

And doesn't the cow have a right to exist as much as any other creature on the planet?

The most recycling that goes in the box here every week is bloody pet food packets/tins and pets have little environmental benefit.

 

[Lincoln75]

Its been a few years since I was at Uni but we tried to work it out only to find there is not accepted by all formula , maybe different now.

 

[Sid]

There is a lot more to it than that.

The cow is saving diesel by managing the sward. It is providing manure with potentially no travelling. It provides milk , meat, leather etc. from basically solar power.

And doesn't the cow have a right to exist as much as any other creature on the planet?

The most recycling that goes in the box here every week is bloody pet food packets/tins and pets have little environmental benefit.

Like to see the peer reviewed evidence on that.
Some parts are quite surprising!

 

[Still Farming]

Plenty on The Apps store ?
But which are bench mark universal qualifed results and could be adapted for Farms???

 

[Lincoln75]

Plenty on The Apps store ?
But which are bench mark universal qualifed results and could be adapted for Farms???

I doubt any of them are accepted by all in academia.